Gretchen Craft Rubin (born December 14, 1965) is an American author, blogger and speaker.
September is the other January.
We tend to overestimate what we can do in a short period, and underestimate what we can do over a long period.
Habits are the invisible architecture of everyday life.
It's about living in the moment and appreciating the smallest things. Surrounding yourself with the things that inspire you and letting go of the obsessions that want to take over your mind. It is a daily struggle sometimes and hard work but happiness begins with your own attitude and how you look at the world.
I'm a person who's fine saying 'No. ' I like saying to myself, "no gossiping," "no nagging. "
Now that I've relinquished my fantasies of all the people I wish I could be, and stopped feeling guilty about [them], I have more time for the things that I truly enjoy.
Pay close attention to any flame of enthusiasm.
Did I have a heart to be contented? Well, no, not particularly. I had a tendency to be discontented: ambitious, dissatisfied, fretful, and tough to please. . . It's easier to complain than to laugh, easier to yell than to joke around, easier to be demanding than to be satisfied.
We tend to overestimate what we can do in a short period, and underestimate what we can do over a long period, provided we work slowly and consistently. Anthony Trollope, the nineteenth-century writer who managed to be a prolific novelist while also revolutionizing the British postal system, observed, “A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules. ” Over the long run, the unglamorous habit of frequency fosters both productivity and creativity.
The thing that inspires me most is reading and just observing the people around me. I think those are the two things that make me want to write.
One of the great joys of falling in love is the feeling that the most extraordinary person in the entire world has chosen you.
Creativity arises from a constant churn of ideas, and one of the easiest ways to encourage that fertile froth is to keep your mind engaged with your project. When you work regularly, inspiration strikes regularly.
I've found that I snack less and concentrate better when I chew on a plastic stirrer - the kind that you get to stir your to-go coffee. I picked up this habit from my husband, who loves to chew on things. His favorite chew-toy is a plastic pen top, and gnawed pen tops and little bits of plastic litter our apartment.
A blog is something that, everyday there's a new thing and that's part of the fun of it, you're just constantly moving forward. A book really gives you more time to reflect and think hard on things very, very deep.
It's the task that's never started that's more tiresome.
It was time to expect more of myself. Yet as I thought about happiness, I kept running up against paradoxes. I wanted to change myself but accept myself. I wanted to take myself less seriously -- and also more seriously. I wanted to use my time well, but I also wanted to wander, to play, to read at whim. I wanted to think about myself so I could forget myself. I was always on the edge of agitation; I wanted to let go of envy and anxiety about the future, yet keep my energy and ambition.
If you're a night person you can barely get out of bed in time to get to work or get your kids off to school. You're at your most productive and creative much later in the day, and for you, something like getting up early to go for a run is not going to set you up for success because you're not a morning person.
Superstition is the irrational belief that an object or behavior has the power to influence an outcome, when there's no logical connection between them. Most of us aren't superstitious - but most of us are a 'littlestitious. '
The belief that unhappiness is selfless and happiness is selfish is misguided. It's more selfless to act happy. It takes energy, generosity, and discipline to be unfailingly lighthearted.
I needed to change the lens through which I viewed everything familiar.